Fred Zemlick, Mixed Media
Oct 2008 to Nov 2008, Oakwood Neighborhood
Artist Statement
I have been painting since the early 1970’s and my outlook on art has changed dramatically. In the beginning, my work was a mixture of wine and drugs, with paint and poorly stretched canvas. Now, sober, I paint with the residual effects of the drugs and cheap wine.
My inspiration for art can come from different sources: music, current events, and my worldview all play dominant parts, intermittently. Leonard Cohen, Alanis Morissette, Afro Celtic Sounds, and Natalie Merchant are a few musicians I like to listen to while I paint. Of course, the on going ‘wars’ are a fixture of my life, since I hardly remember a time when there was no war. Social issues such as the way women are viewed in our society are important to me because, I believe the womb is the epicenter of the culture. How it is viewed and esteemed, reflects the true value, endurance and moral fabric of the culture itself. It is of the womb, that a culture is preserved or destroyed.
Art is dangerous. There is little doubt that the artist is somewhat of a prophet of a place, reflecting on canvas, the soul of that environment, and those that inhabit it. A place in time and space, that for a little while, expressing with salted madness, prepares a meal that hopefully one will carry with them to their edge of the world.
